The present invention is directed towards a device for immobilizing a patient's hand while holding the hand to a support board in order to facilitate various surgical procedures including endoscopy carpal tunnel release, percutaneous carpal tunnel-plasty and arthoscopy of the hand and wrist.
The human hand is the site of a large number of operative procedures and prior art hand restraints have not been able to fully immobilize the hand during a number of surgical procedures.
A number of restraint devices have been used to support and restrain a patient's hand for intravenous administration and various surgical procedures. U.S. Pat. No. 4,982,744 discloses an immobilizing apparatus including a composite sheet and arm board. The composite sheet includes an adhesive surface on one side and loop fastener on the other side. The arm board includes a fabric hook fastener which engages and holds the hook fasteners of the composite sheet. The patient's hand and/or forearm is secured to the composite sheet by placing the hand and/or forearm on the adhesive surface, the hooked surface of the composite sheet having been previously mounted to the hooked surface of the arm board. A hand belt constructed of fabric loop fasteners, can be used with the restraining device to immobilized the hand.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,941,480 discloses a splint for immobilizing an patient's arm consisting of a three sided plastic foam support which is secured to the patient's arm with a series of Velcro.RTM. straps.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,025,801; 4,909,264; 3,762,401; and 2,266,230, each disclose devices which temporarily restrain or support the hand and/or forearm using straps or bands to secure the hand for surgery or intravenous therapy. The use of straps is disadvantageous in that the straps are difficult to secure and also limit accessibility of the patient's hand and/or forearm.